Thursday, 23 October 2014

Drug Store Haul | Boots & Superdrug

I've been picking up items here and there from both Boots and Superdrug over the past couple of months which I haven't featured on my blog before, so I thought I would show you some new purchases today.

As I've owned these items for quite a while, I'll give you my opinions on them too!

Back in 2013, pre my Roaccutane treatment, this product was a god send at combating my oily skin during the day. While being on Roaccutane last year, my skin became a lot drier and I had to switch to a heavier duty moisturiser. Now my skin is back to it's normal oily state, I've rediscovered this product and I've completely fallen in love with it again. This moisturiser is definitely lightweight and leaves your skin feeling fresh and moisturised whilst controlling shine throughout the day.

My Sister and I picked up a couple of Montagne Jeunesse's face masks for a pamper night we were having last week. I'm quite a fan of their peel-off masks mainly for convenience of removing them without making a mess. This Hot Chocolate mask heats up when it's applied to the skin and I found my skin definitely felt thoroughly cleansed after use. I did suffer from a few breakouts the day after I used the product, so I think I will limit face mask use for special occasions as my skin is very sensitive and prone to breaking out after using new products.

Earlier this year, my YouTube subscription box was filled with beauty gurus using this product in their tutorials, so I finally gave in to the hype and had to purchase it. Unfortunately, I'm quite disappointed with this product. I find the brush is too flexible, which makes it extremely hard to control the brush when combing it through my lashes. Because of this, I found it took a few coats more than usual to coat my lashes properly. I will still try to use this up for lazy days in the house - but I'm not convinced it's anything special.

One of the very first products I reviewed on my blog back in 2012 was an Organix product and I'm still really impressed with their products. I'm a huge believer in Organic shampoos that are sulphate free as I find they are moisturising without making your hair feeling really stripped and dry - like I found a shampoo with sulphates does. The shampoo is packed with keratin protein and argan oil which I desperately need in a shampoo at the moment as my hair is feeling particularly dry due to using more heated styling tools than usual. Organix shampoos are slightly more expensive than typical drugstore shampoos, but are definitely worth the slightly higher investment.

I picked this product up in Superdrug a couple of weeks ago as it was on offer and I was instantly drawn to it's description of adding volume with a lightweight formula. I wasn't impressed with this product as I found my hair was a lot more difficult to style afterwards as the shampoo completely stripped my hair and it all tangled together. The artificial scent of this product wasn't very pleasant either. I'm gutted I'm not a fan of this product as I had high hopes due to the description on the packaging. I have a lot of hair, but it's very fine and often lifeless, so I'm still on the hunt for a shampoo that will volumise my hair without the ends feeling really dry and stripped.

As mentioned previously, my hair is very dry at the ends and is in need of a lot of moisture, so I tend to use deep conditioning treatments instead of normal conditioner to give my hair extra moisture. I find TRESemmé's Platinum strength range is great at conditioning my hair - and all their products smell amazing! I apply the deep conditioning treatment a couple of times a week, followed by the leave-in conditioner after towel drying my hair.

I've always been a fan of Aussie products and their deep conditioning treatments are definitely the best on the beauty market at the moment. Aussie products always smell amazing and actually linger for quite a while after washing- which I find is quite rare of hair products nowadays as the scent normally vanishes after a couple of hours. Their deep conditioning treatments are available to buy in smaller sizes too, which are perfect for travelling.

I recently featured this product in my 'Battle of the Brands' dry shampoo edition and this one came out top of the leader board. The product successfully gets rid of any oily patches in my hair as well as giving it volume and smelling fresh. Unlike other dry shampoos, I find this one leaves virtually no white residue on my hair, which is always a winner!

After hunting for my usual Mitchum deodorant in the scent waterlily for months, I'm gutted to find out the product has been discontinued. I've tried a number of deodorants since then - from Dove to Nivea products - and I always end up coming back to Sure Women. I'm a fan of their little compressed bottle sizes, they really do last the same amount of time as their bigger cans! The scent of the deodorant is beautiful so I'll definitely be re-purchasing this again in the future.

Have you tried any of these products? What are your staple drug store products?